64
Opinion of the Court
Our interpretation of the statute's language does not produce anomalous results. It would have been perfectly rational for Congress not to pre-empt common-law claims, which—unlike most administrative and legislative regulations—necessarily perform an important remedial role in compensating accident victims. Cf. Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp., 464 U. S. 238, 251 (1984). Indeed, compensation is the manifest object of the saving clause, which focuses not on state authority to regulate, but on preserving "liability at common law or under State law." In context, this phrase surely refers to private damages remedies.10 We
thus agree with the Illinois Supreme Court's conclusion that petitioner's common-law tort claims are not expressly preempted by the FBSA.
IV
Even if § 10 of the FBSA does not expressly pre-empt state common-law claims, respondent contends that such claims are implicitly pre-empted by the entire statute, and more specifically by the Coast Guard's decision not to regulate propeller guards. Both are viable pre-emption theories:
"We have recognized that a federal statute implicitly overrides state law either when the scope of a statute indicates that Congress intended federal law to occupy a field exclusively, English v. General Elec. Co., 496 U. S. 72, 78-79 (1990), or when state law is in actual conflict with federal law. We have found implied conflict preemption where it is 'impossible for a private party to comply with both state and federal requirements,' id., at 79, or where state law 'stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.' Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U. S.
10 The FBSA itself imposes civil money penalties payable to the United States, as well as imprisonment for willful violations, 46 U. S. C. § 4311, but does not authorize any private damages remedies for persons injured by noncomplying operators, boats, or equipment.
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